I’m currently reading two books so I’ll include the first lines of both.
Shortly after dawn, Abraham Lincoln awoke in his second-floor suite at Willard’s Hotel, two blocks from the White House.
Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, 1861-1865 by William F. Klingaman
The rock turned silently in hard vacuum, and the young woman with it.
The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham
“As a young child, thinking as big as big can be and getting absolutely nowhere for the effort, I would often lie awake at night, pondering the mysteries of infinity and eternity–and feeling pure awe (in an inchoate, but intense, boyish way) at my utter inability to comprehend.”
I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History, by Stephen Jay Gould
“The hardest part of using mathematics to study an application is the translation from real life into mathematical formalism.”
Differential Equations, by Blanchard, Devaney, & Hall.
It both deafens and soothes. The thunderclap as the pebbles are flung landward in a cloud of salt spray, then the long, hollow sucking-back as the dark water rushes home.
L.C.Tyler, A Masterpiece of Corruption
It has been observed that if a sailor had climbed into a time machine in the year 1850, and was randomly transported through time, he would have found himself more at home as a foremast jack in the Spanish Armada, which had sailed against England in 1588, than in one of the big steel battleships of 1900.
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 by Ian W. Toll
“Her son was going to start a war.”
Skyfall by Catherine Asaro
“This is the story of a man who went away for a long time, just to play a game. The man is a game-player called 'Gurgeh.”
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
“We’d better do something,” Rick Brant stated grimly, “and we’d better do it fast.”
The Pirates of Shan, by John Blaine – Rick Brant science-adventure novel #14.
That’s the book I’m reading on this computer (courtesy of Project Gutenberg). The other books I’m reading are a) in my car, and b) upstairs by my bed. I’ll post them later.
“I recognize the men at the bar. And the one woman.”
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and People Who Cook, by Anthony Bourdain
“Charity Byrne had come to Singapore to look after Dee Dee.”
The Frangipani Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu
“After taking a look at myself, I’ve realized that I may be a little too outspoken in putting forward my opinions, just a bit too quick to judge others to their detriment, much too inclined to think I know what’s best for someone else, and entirely too skeptical of every claim to better my life made by salesmen of all stripes, including politicians.”
Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two by Ann B. Ross
“George Matheson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on March 27th, 1842.”
Stories of Grit, by Archer Wallace
“The sky above the San Fernando Valley that Saturday morning was a deep blue, washed clean of the dirt and chemical particulates that typically color L.A. air by a breeze that burbled out of the San Gabriel Mountains and over the flat valley floor and across the high ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains.”
– Sunset Express, by Robert Crais
“My feet squish in the mud as I shift my weight, glancing around at the family members gathered in the bare farm field.”
A Single Bead, by Stephanie Engelman
“Barrett was the uncrowned king of Hawksbill Station.”
Hawksbill Station, by Robert Silverberg (1967)
“Between 1953 and 1958, the Hugo Awards were fairly disorganized.”
An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000, by Jo Walton.
“At two-fourteen in the morning on the night they left one life to begin their next, the rain thundered down in a raging curtain that thrummed against the house and the porch and the plain white Econoline van that the United States Marshals had brought to whisk them away.”
– Indigo Slam, by Robert Crais
“They put Foley and the Cuban together in the backseat of the van and took them from the Palm Beach County jail on Gun Club to Glades Correctional, the old redbrick prison at the south end of Lake Okeechobee. Neither one said a word during the ride that took most of an hour, both of them handcuffed and shackled.”
Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard
“O Mighty Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives.”
Exhalation, by Ted Chiang. (Note that this book is a collection of stories; the sentence is from “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”.
1a \ā\ n. pl a’s or as \āz\ often cap, often attrib (bef 12c) 1 a : the 1st letter of the English alphabet b : a graphic representation of this letter c : a speech counterpart of orthographic a
– Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition